The Quest Continues

You’d think that I’d know pretty much all I need to know at my age.

I mean seriously folks, shouldn’t I just sit and chortle at all the younglings’ who are still running into things, unable to fathom that pace of life yet? Shouldn’t I know the BIG issues of life?

Why am I always surprised and puzzled?

Having just finished reading Joseph Campbell’s, The Hero With a Thousand Faces, I should get that we are all just playing out the story of humanity in infinite forms, no? Can’t I leave it at that?

NO, apparently I’m forced to admit at my refined age, that I may be just a tad, just a tiny bit, miniscule actually, ANAL.

Case in point.

Or in several, but in POINT now.

Michael Huckabee, once governor of Arkansas, a state lost between Noah’s ark and Kansas. Now our Huck as he is fondly called by many, was once upon a time (not a fairy tale) a preacher. A southern Baptist one, to be exact, and that means literally, literal, insofar as a fundamentalist can be literal, which is way a lot when they need to and way not all when it would be inconvenient to be so. Which makes him really a Christianist, one of those rather duplicitous individuals who sorta uses Jesus when needed and ignores him when not, although pretending to NEVER forget Jesus, i.e., sprinkling all talk with plenty of “thanks be to God” and Thank the Lord” .

So, Mikey as he is not fondly called, figured he would jump into the fray of the “war on women” being continuously waged by the GOP.

That that is clear to every human being save the GOP itself who continue to remain with head firmly inside butt is also clear.

And the trend has continued as we all know in 2012, 2013 and so on.

It is Republicans who are trying to restrict abortions and are, through phony laws, forcing PPH offices to close all over the country. Women are being denied reproductive care quite simply and that results in more women dying from reproductive disease, and more unwanted pregnancies, the EXACT OPPOSITE of what Republicans claim they are introducing such legislation for.

In pops the Huckster, who is starting to think that running for President might be a good thing, and off he goes with the mouth part:

“If the Democrats want to insult the women of America by making them believe that they are helpless without Uncle Sugar coming in and providing for them a prescription each month for birth control because they cannot control their libido or their reproductive system without the help of the government, then so be it,. . .”

So, old Mikey thinks that Democrats believe that women’s insatiable libido requires contraceptive care in the guise of Uncle Sugar?

Seriously, explain how he came to that conclusion, or is just simply the way dead-below-the-waist-Mike feels? Is his wife dragging him to bed every night and telling him to Viagra up or something? Is the old man tired of “gettin’ it up” and gettin’ going?

This after some dip wad in Virginia by the name of Black, who is running for Congress, suggests that there should probably be no laws against marital rape.

“How on earth you could validly get a conviction of a husband-wife rape when they’re living together, sleeping in the same bed, she’s in a nightie, and so forth, there’s no injury, there’s no separation or anything.”

Seriously, it’s just a he said, she said kinda thing, right? Boys will be boys. . . .or, I bet he’s the one in the nightie.

Are Republican men this utterly clueless. Is there no Republican woman around who can just tell them to SHUT THE F**K UP?

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Explain to me how any person can go to college for four years and become educated sufficiently to teach math, and still denies the truth of evolution?  How does a brain do that?

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By all accounts Chris Christie is a reasonably intelligent human being. I have learned that he was darned good at running for stuff in college and in organizing so that his “team” would win across the board in student elections. And we are most aware of his spectacular rise in New Jersey, a definitely blue state.

So, in looking forward to someday running for President, (and surely you know he’s always had that in his mind since he was 12 or so), wouldn’t you sorta know that thugs and others who did your dirty work and the people you intimidated all your life, would literally flood the plains of Jersey should they even SMELL a leak in the dike?

Is it just me or is this just the beginning of an avalanche of charges, and victims parading forth telling their story of how Christie thugs forced them to throw Grandma off the train? The Bridge and Hoboken are just the tip of the iceberg I suspect.

Why do people who don’t play by the rules always think nobody will find out?

Do the really believe in perfect crimes?

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Here’s one for ya.

I went to a typical high school. Maybe not so much as I thought.

A whole bunch of us started in kindergarten and graduated together. Over the years, cliques changed. Our group splintered into a good five groups or so. Some of us got hurt by being dumped. Some never aspired to group 1, probably most. We all dissed those below us, more or less. We gave what we got.

I’ve been to college, three times. I’ve worked for people and for myself. I’ve been in a ton of relationships, all of which obviously went sour for one reason or another, due to one thing or other, until the last one, which has lasted nearly 14 years. I’ve been screwed over by the best and worst of them, regarding all sorts of things. In that regard I am no different from any other human.

As my friend Jean said, all humans are flawed. We get to accept that about each other, and how our flaws blend enough to get along.

But, when I reconnected with high school classmates, I found this:

A friendliness that turned out to be all too superficial. Most of the lines remained drawn. A rather stunning realignment based on who agrees with who. Fundies gather together and chat like great friends when way back then, they never spoke and one would not be caught “dead” with the other. All the liberals now, however, were my friends back then. People I thought were smart turned out to be dumb, or as uninformed as a person could be and still walk. A whole slew are angry, very angry people, mostly those who stayed in the factory town that went belly up.  And although raised in a working class environment where the UAW was the norm in most households, most are conservative, hating folks, who blame unions, and the poor for being takers. And kids should be slapped around because “it was good enough for me”. They are “patriotic” as they define it, meaning they love “the troops” and the flag, but hate the President, and income redistribution, although surely they would benefit from that.

And I don’t get most of ‘em. A few who were a year or two behind me or ahead, I get. They escaped the hate thing somehow. They are good people, who have worked hard, but avoided blaming those who have less for what they don’t have.

And the real point here, is that, all those people from college and work situations and relationships that didn’t do unto me as I think they should? I have long ago forgotten them and their transgressions because, hey, we are all flawed. But the angers from those old high-school slights still linger and still seem rawer than they should.  And I have a couple of those classmates who don’t participate in group discussions and I think they are  so much smarter than I. They are not wasting their time on stupid.

Which all goes to say that I delight a bit too much in telling old X and Y what utterly stupid people they became. Ain’t that funny? Or sad in a funny sort of way?

The first cut is the deepest. Thank you Rod Stewart for reminding me.

Well, Where Have You Been, Huh?

Got your attention didn’t I?

Well where have you been? I been waiting here it seems like forever, and NOBODY showed up. So I thought I might jar you from your lethargy with Buttons here, my friendly pup.

Actually I have just been busy in a fairly good way. Holidays and all. Finally have days utterly to myself. Made enough food yesterday to last until at least Monday. By then, I think we will start to be tired of it all.

Frankly the political scene both disgusts me and bores me. I still keep INFORMED, but I’m just so tired of Republicans being, you know, so Republicanish, which is a nice way to say douchey. Do they ever stop being douche bags? My representative sure doesn’t. Steve Pearce is his unholy name, and he is a douche of the very first order.

A millionaire they tell me, and owned lock, stock and barrel by the TeaDrunkards. I find it amusing to read the GOP playbook (sent around to all the lil man and woman/childs pretencing at actually serving the public). Said playbook is regularly filched/gifted/snuck to various liberal organizations and published for all to see. It consists of phrases (typically called “talking points”) and suggestions of things to do to make the GOP look intelligent and the Democrats to look stupid.

The playbook lately has focused a lot on Obamacare, of which I am thoroughly tired by the by. So, to make a long story not quite as long, old Steve has been busy reading his, and he regales us regularly on Facebook with lists of all those tens of millions who have lost their coverage in New Mexico, followed by a plea to “please send us your stories of misery”. He then reports one or two of these, and dusts his filthy lucre hands off and thinks he’s done his “job.”

Of course he offers these people no help of any sort, and fails to bother suggesting that they go to the exchanges and see what they might be offering. We have no individual exchanges here since our other douche Guv Martinez, didn’t sign the legislation until it was too late to have the time to set them up for October. So we are very douchey here. (Guv Martinez may have some serious problems of her own since her main man on her staff is a Rovish like creature that a number of people have suggested might be leading her into some illegal behaviors )

Anyway, his latest addition to stupid dialogue is to suggest that Domino’s Pizza is paying $15-20 per hour to drivers, but only in “energy selling” states, meaning those states that are pumping oil and frackin’ their way to heaven with gas. Now any student in the first fifteen minutes of undergrad school (pick your subject) knows that one has zero to do with the other on so many grounds that we reach infinity. But what was funny was that a whole bunch of Domino’s drivers chimed in with “hey Steve, you idiot!” Turns out that the $15-20 is an estimate of what drivers CAN make with tips off their base crummy salary, and DOESN’T include the cost of maintenance of their vehicle and GAS. But poor old Steve fairly misses that, since he’s simply following the PLAYBOOK.

I figured after going a few rounds with Steve, that well, I was right in the ball park with this next story. It seems like dinosaurs liked to poop in groups.  In this they are similar to camels and elephants, which means the apple don’t fall far from the tree, I guess. Or not. Evolution is a strange thing.  I’m really pretty sure that Republicans poop in groups too.

Which leads to this: did ya know that some soft tissue from a T. Rex survived 68 million years? It was found in Montana, and I have no idea whether that mattered at all, but factoids are important in Jeopardy, so consider me a coach. I mean under the best conditions it’s only supposed to last a million years. Anyway, the collagen from the beastie resembles that of birds, which must make the people at the Creation Museum go scrambling for an explanation. It all has to do with a lot of biological mumbo jumbo and IRON-rich blood that for some reason known only to a BIOLOGIST, helps preserve the tissue.

Which reminds me of Coach, Craig T. Nelson, who is among the dumber of the Republicans I know of. He hates paying taxes, hates the “welfare” society we now live in, hates Obama for bringing all that to Merika, and so on and so forth. And he’s not going to take it any more, refusing to pay taxes for things he doesn’t believe in. After all, he says, “What happened to society? I go into business, I don’t make it, I go bankrupt. I’ve been on food stamps and welfare, did anybody help me out?. . .” YES YOU IGNORANT FOOL, THE GOVERNMENT HELPED YOU OUT WITH THE FOOD STAMPS AND WELFARE!!!  I mean this is Louis Gohmert stupid.

Louis by the way has been ear-deep in Obama conspiracy theories, claiming that the President is busy via the AHCA in amassing a private army. He’s been at this for some time, and the stories of the government buying up ammunition only goes to support that idea according to the Galloping Gohmert. A portion of the law which allows the training of a group for public health and national emergency response, is to Louis a smoking gun. But he’s a bit unsure of what the weapons of choice will be for this group:

“I’ve continued to ask questions, what is this for?” It says it is for international health crises, but then it doesn’t include the word ‘health’ when it talks about national emergencies. And I’ve asked, what kind of training are they getting? It provides in Obamacare that this commission and non-commissioned officer corps will be trained. But I want to know, are they using weapons to train or are they being taught to use syringes and health care items? But we’ve got no clear answers on that.”

Seems like dear Louis should bring up this subject at the next group poop he has with Cruz and King, and well, all the bare butted GOP’ers at the gathering. Hey, whose poo don’t stink?

Happy leftovers!

I’m So Damned Tired of This

This is truly getting annoying.

If one more person suggests that the Mainstream Media is in the bag for the Democrats, I surely will flatten them with a left hook. The so-called “liberal media” has been relentless since the roll out of the Affordable Health Care Act, in pointing out all its flaws and shortcomings. It has repeatedly asked the question: “are these glitches portents of real issues in the law itself?” Yes, of course, the pimple on my nose is also directly related to the rainstorm that now threatens too. Please folks get a clue.

Meanwhile the EXTREME RIGHT has all its ducks in a row and is panting out the same refrain from radio and TV–this is a train wreck and it’s just as we predicted. This can’t be fixed! The President lied! Millions are losing their insurance! Millions are facing huge increases in premiums!

Suddenly the awful healthcare system in this country, one that does just fine for the wealthy but barely exists for the poor, is being touted as the “best health delivery system in the world!” It ain’t. People who are not rich but are well enough off routinely travel to other countries for a variety of procedures that can be done cheaper with every bit as good an outcome. It’s called medical tourism.  And whatever they might try to tell you, people are not leaving Canada, Britain and a host of European countries, all in some attempt to escape “socialized” medicine in those countries.

Yes the Website for the healthcare exchanges is bad, but it’s not nearly as bad as it was. Was that inexcusable? Certainly. Shame on them all. Has anyone been harmed by the delay? Not a single soul as far as I know. Today, you can negotiate the site fairly easily. When I tried to continue my enrollment and found that the information input was not taking properly, a phone call to the 800 number (which was answered promptly and involved a wait of only two minutes) provided an answer within five minutes and I am ready to reset and try again.

Much has been made about all these people getting cancellation notices from their insurance companies. Somehow this is making Obama out to be a liar. He is not, quite plain and simple. Let me make this as clear as can be:

1. Company policies that were in place BEFORE the ACA became law, are grandfathered in. Many of these were and are substandard policies, not covering major catastrophic needs, but they are grandfathered in nonetheless.
2. Policies that were issued AFTER the ACA became law, are required to be “brought up to standards”.
3. There was, therefore EVERY reason on earth for the President to tell people that for those who had EXISTING policies, they could keep them. This did ASSUME that they were grandfathered policies for WHO IN THEIR RIGHT MIND IN THE INSURANCE INDUSTRY WOULD ISSUE SUBSTANDARD POLICIES AFTER THE ACA PASSED KNOWING THEY WOULD BE GOOD FOR ONLY ONE YEAR?
4. How was the President to conclude that those policies issued BEFORE the ACA would be cancelled? And that in many cases, insurance companies would run the following scam: Hi, you insurance is being cancelled because it doesn’t meet the ACA standards to go into effect Oct 1, 2013. Here are some new plans you can buy from us that are up to the new standards (all at much higher prices).  If we don’t hear from you, we will continue your coverage under a new compliant plan at this new price. (no mention that you might find better coverage at lower cost on the exchanges).
5. Insurers create and drop plans all the time, and they continue to do so. Is the President responsible for this process and do people have a right to hold him accountable just because their insurance was cancelled due to the usual alternations conducted by the insurers? Surely most people have had their insurance cancelled at one time or another. This is not the President’s fault, but the fault of companies who are always playing the numbers and when you seem ripe for a claim, they are doing their best to cancel you before that happens.
6. The cancellations are being sent out to approximately 5% of all people who are self-insured. Most people are not self-insured by are covered through employer programs, or medicare/Medicaid. Of these some 3% will end up when all the dust has settled with premiums higher than they had before for substantially the same coverage. Those are pretty darn good numbers, even though in the individual circumstance they might be painful. In most cases, they will occur to people who can afford the increase.

To all those who are so filled with hate for Obama that you would rather eat nails than get cheaper and better health care? Well, I have one answer. Keep your fake insurance or get none at all. But the FAIR thing to do is to pass a law exempting medical expenses from bankruptcy. Then when you get hit by a bus, you can pay your fair bill from the hospital and not stick the rest of us with your treatment. Capish? I mean, you don’t want to be one of those awful “takers” do ya?

PS: On an anecdotal note: I got into two conversations on Facebook with “Obamacare disaster victims”. In both cases (one over 70, the other in their 90′s), neither wanted Medicare and were unhappy because their insurance companies wanted a lot more money to keep insuring them. Cry me a river. Seriously.

Related articles

• Dean Baker: Obamacare isn’t cancelling your plan – your insurance company is though (eoionline.org)
• No, Obama Didn’t Lie to You About Your Health Care Plans (alternet.org)
• President’s Insurance Announcement Keeps Eyes on the Prize (huffingtonpost.com)
• The President’s Fix and How Insurance Companies Will Still Be Able to Screw People (thedailybanter.com)
• Obama Dares Insurance Companies to Put Up or Shut Up (motherjones.com)
• What the Obamacare fix does, and how it could be better (dailykos.com)
• No, You Can’t Keep Your Insurance (yourfaceispolitics.wordpress.com)

It All Depends on How You Define Insurance

The headlines are simply appalling:

“Pregnant woman loses her health insurance because of Obamacare”

“Florida woman told her $50 health insurance will now cost $500 under Obamacare.”

Peter Sessions sends forth a Facebook entry: “While the Obama Administration publicly promised that Americans who liked their health insurance would be able to keep it, privately it knew that wasn’t true.”

The GOP knows the whining about a website’s faults only gets so much traction. As one commentator said, the average person can pretty much separate a faulty website from the value of an insurance plan.

So we have to move on. Now all we are hearing is that millions of people are losing their insurance unless they play 5, 10, 20 times what they paid before. All this after the president promised that we could keep plans we liked.

Okay, lets actually look at the FACTS.

President Obama did say that if people were happy with their insurance they could keep it. In some instances he said “if you are happy with your employer insurance, you can keep it.”

Eighty percent of all those who are insured are insured through employer plans. So the President was accurate as to 80% of all insured people.

That means 20% are self-insured. Of those something between 40-60% have plans that meet federal standards or are grandfathered in. The latter accounts for the 20% discrepancy since the grandfathering aspect is a case by case situation depending on how stable the plan has been over time–if your plan fluctuates every year in terms of deductibles or so forth, it might not be grandfathered.

Let’s be fair and split the baby. Say 50% of all self-employed have policies that are acceptable. That means that now 90% of all insured people can have the policies they already have. The President is now 90% accurate.

That means that for 10% of insured, their cannot keep the insurance they have.

Why is that?

Quite simply, it’s because those policies are deemed to be sham policies by and large. They have exorbitant deductibles for instance, don’t cover pre-existing conditions, have annual limits or life-time limits, and don’t cover enough situations to make them considered real insurance. The “insurance” company has two options–to discontinue the policy or to improve it with presumably higher premiums.

Is that the end of it?

Certainly not. Every such person affected has the right to then go into the Affordable Health Care system and see what is available there. In most cases, they will end up with better coverage at equal if not less cost. That will not be true in all cases, but at least preliminarily from anecdotal information that has actually be investigated, it suggested that upwards of 60-70% of those people will end up with better policies at little or no additional costs and sometimes much cheaper.

Let’s look at some of the cases reported so far that I have heard of.

• A well-known satirical writer from NY who is I would guess in his 30′s, says he went on the exchanges and ended up with a much better policy at a lower cost than he was paying.
• Three people appeared on Sean Hannity and said they were losing their policies and would have no insurance they could afford because of Obamacare. One later admitted he had simply lied, none of his claims were true. The other two admitted that they had not sought to determine what they could get on the exchanges. When that was done for them, in front of them, based on the information they supplied, both were eligible for plans that were better than they had and at lower cost.
• One man got a letter from his insurance company saying his plan would be cancelled. He went on the exchanges, and admits he found a better plan at a lower cost, but he is angry because he has the right to pay more for less if he wants to and no government has the right to step in and keep him from being an idiot (okay, he didn’t say the very last part).
•  CBS News reports The Florida woman who was paying $50 and will have to pay $500? Start with she lives in Florida whose governor and state legislature are controlled by Republicans who have refused to extend Medicaid or set up exchanges. This story was reported on CBS Evening News. The reporter, Jan Crawford, didn’t bother to do any investigation. If she had, she would have learned that the woman in question had what Consumer Reports calls “junk” insurance. The policy doesn’t cover hospitalization of any type. It grants her $50 toward a doctor’s visit, $15  toward her prescriptions, and pays for lab tests. This is not insurance. The company clearly makes money, since nobody sees their doctor once a month or gets lab tests every month. This is similar to “prescription insurance” cards which pay some portion of any prescription you might have to get in the future. If you have a condition with monthly prescription renewals, you surely aren’t going to qualify. They want to make money, not pay it out. Further, with the Florida woman, there is no indication that she has even looked at the federal exchanges. The $500 premium is what is quoted from her “insurance” company for a policy that meets federal standards. With a bit of effort it was determined that this woman might well qualify for a full plan under AHCA at almost exactly what she was paying, but at worst (if her income were substantially higher, she could get a full plan for about $332.00.
• Red State reported the pregnant woman story. They did not bother telling you the entire story. Again, the woman was paying $98 a month in California for “coverage”, of what we know nothing. Obviously it cannot be for much. It turns out that the woman cannot get subsidies because she and her husband (both lawyers) make in excess of $80,000 per year. Well, I’m terribly sorry but I fail to see why I should be heart-broken if two lawyers can’t afford something a bit more than $98 a month for a junk policy.
• I can think of at least three other instances of people self-reporting that they got through the exchanges and discovered that they could get more coverage at lower rates than they were paying.

Anecdotal evidence doesn’t prove much I admit. But most of these examples are from the Right. And they prove to be false.

It turns out that the vast vast majority of self-insured will come out the same, no different or better than they were before. A few percent will pay more we think. Some will be more than able to afford it.

The GOP has made this whole thing worse by its refusal to extend Medicaid in poor red states. And now they cry about the predictable outcome.

Just like they claim that the business is getting a years delay. Except the truth is that 6% of business is getting the delay. Not the other 94%.

It’s all lies, brought to you by those who are desperate to dismantle health care before everyone discovers the truth–it’s good for America. When people have that fact concretely in their brains, they will demand that the GOP stop blocking their right to health care. But the GOP prefers not to help solve the problems that exist, but only try to pretend that such problems will cause the end of America.

So are you hearing different? Let me know.

Related articles

• A few words about that “Obamacare Sticker Shock” you may have heard tell of! (americanliberaltimes.com)
• The Bright Side of Obamacare’s Broken Promise (nation.time.com)

A Typhoon in the Bathtub Only Threatens the Rubber Ducky

Excuse me if I’m a bit confused here.

The GOP has agreed on one thing–to a man and woman they HATE Obamacare. I mean they don’t just think it’s not a good program, they see it, also to a man and woman as the singularly one piece of legislation that will be known historically as the only and complete cause of the demise of the Republic and like a domino, will precipitate the collapse of Western civilization (which is the only one worth discussing of course) as we know it.

They have worked tirelessly since its passage to repeal it, defund it, and/or otherwise make it ineffective. They have sued it, screwed it, and otherwise squeezed it until every bit of blood was drained from its carcass. This they have tried.

They have warned the public that the plug would be pulled on grandma, that death panels would deny their precious precocious preteen the very treatment needed for life, all in the name of communistic commune-style equality. They have said that the doctor you love so much that you never forget her birthday, will be ripped from your arms to be replaced by automatons spitting forth paper check-off symptomatic lists and nurses that cackle in the hallway as you sit drenched in sweat and shivering dressed in your paper suit awaiting the verdict from a committee of cost-cutting psychopaths.

They have, in the guise of their governorships and GOP-controlled state houses, refused to participate in enlarging their own Medicaid rolls, even when guaranteed that for the first three years the Federal government would pick up the entire tab and 90% of the tab thereafter. They have sat with arms crossed and refused to set up exchanges to allow their citizens easier sign-up.

They have threatened the very economy of the entire country rather than give up on their pipe dream of ending this law–all in the name of stopping the vicious damage they have predicted would ensue to Ma and Pa Kettle and all their lil’ childrens across the great American landscape.

Sooooooo.

It strikes me as odd, that when your constant refrain to folks is, by golly gee wiz, doncha dare sign up for that devil-inspired, dripping with communistic red health care plan, that when there are problems, as there always are, with the website and sign-up procedures, you are not jumping for joy at how many people are being saved from the evil law, but rather you are complaining about how difficult it is for people to sign up as if that is evidence that the law is all kinds of bad.

I mean my head is turning around faster than Regan in the Exorcist. Aren’t they glad the sign-up is not working? Instead all I see are properly “horrified” members of Republican rectitude moaning about how this “has got to be fixed” or defunded, or repealed, whichever.

Has there been ONE SINGLE offer of a solution?

Has there been ONE SINGLE offer of an alternative to insure those presently uninsured?

Oh, yeah, I forgot, this is the party of NO. This is the party of destruction. This is the party of no government is good government.

Except where you and my uteruses are concerned. Except where who I sleep with is concerned. Except where who I pray to is concerned. Except to what I learn as science is concerned. Except there. Oh yeah and except where there are enough cheap junk F-18+ how ever many more there are today that still don’t work worth a damn but until there are enough of them to have one in every damn driveway of America–Strength Through Massive Military Might–. Except where it concerns black and brown people and their pesky determination to continue having children and making me sooo uncomfortable that they might not want to the same things I do, so I need to keep them marginalized with voter suppression laws. Have I left anything out?

Now, the President has called once again for the House of Representatives of Big Business to get off their yawning asses and get on with some immigration reform. And the response of  Speaker out of both sides of his mouth, Boehner and his wanna be speaker next, Eric Cantor, has been, why sure we need some of that, cuz as rational? Republicans we know that we gotta placate those brown faces EVENTUALLY or we will never win a damn election again. But the rank and file? Oh my heavens no.

The same crazy that brought you 16+ days of glorious “screw America” can’t wait to bring you more of that sort of crap, because “I can’t stand to even look at your face” and you know that means that we can’t do a thing that would make this BLACK Demon look good. We enjoy cutting off our noses to spite our ugly faces doncha know? Course it ain’t got a thing to do with our fear that we as pasty white dudes are losing control of the reins of power. We are wearing Depends all the time now, cuz we are so scared you will do unto us as we have traditionally done unto you. But you’re being Black? Why that’s irrelevant to our cause, and besides you are only half-black which means something even worse to hear it from the TeaLegions of Crazy.

Which all goes to say, that I am expecting nothing to change.

Did you know these lazy asses have only 19 more days to work for the whole rest of the year?

And I am so very sick and tired of talking points.

And I’m in favor of taking a lottery system and putting everybody’s name in the drum, and drawing out the requisite number of sending them forth to Washington. It could not seriously be worse. I mean can you imagine worse at this point? Don’t you feel rather Italian? Or Greek? Hurrah, we now have governments just as chaotic and worthless as much of Europe. Or truthfully, are we more like China, with only the illusion of government meant to mimic real ones?

I’m going back to bed. At least my dreams involved palm trees, and warm sands and softly brushing waves upon the shore of my sanity.

We Knew That They Would

Ya just knew it would come down to this. Although of course, there just might be a last-minute reprieve that postpones things another few days or weeks.

When you deal with unstable and basically ignorant people, there is little hope of getting through with logic or common sense.

And the TeaBirchers are certainly unstable and certainly ignorant. It’s hard to understand what they are for or against, unless it starts with the letter O, they are against all things O. Once you cross that line, any semblance to a recognizable landscape vanishes and you might as well try to remain upright walking through the fun house.

Many a pundit has concluded that the TeaBirchers are not people who want to govern but rather those who wish to destroy government in general. That’s partially true.

These pundits claim that the TeaBirchers were sent to Washington to say NO to everything that has to do with spending money. Reduce government to a size that can be drowned in a bathtub they cry, ala Norquist. Yet, if you ask them (the average idiot who wears the funny tri-corner hat at the rallies) if he or she is ready to dump social security or medicare, well, they are pretty much likely to carry these signs:

As I said, these folks are severely lacking in basic knowledge about that of what they speak.

Which always brings us to race, and well, yes, that is a huge part of what’s going on here, but not all.

The thing is most TeaBirchers aren’t against social security and Medicare. They like those things. They feel they should have those things for themselves. But they are very suspicious that nice upstanding, hardworking, bible-clutching, (read WHITE) folks like themselves are but a small number of the people who are getting this “earned benefit”.

It’s all those “other” people who don’t deserve these benefits that cause the trouble. Why, these little programs would be just fine (and hugely smaller) if only the “right” people got the benefits.

Now, of course that is not the way Calgary Ted or Randy actually see things. They are serious elitists, draped in the American flag, and passionately proclaiming that “real Americans” don’t want or need government handouts of any sort. Get old? Your family is responsible for that, and heck, the poor house is still a viable option for those who refuse to work until they drop dead. Work keeps you young! Be just poor? Company towns will make sure there is a roof over your head (of sorts) a few square feet of personal space and all the potatoes and fat back you can eat. Keeps you healthy enough to work on the killing floor of the slaughterhouse no?

Course Ted and Randy keep that “real” agenda on the QT, since the rabble may be dumb, but probably not that dumb.

There are, shockingly, no hordes poised at the gates threatening to storm the Bastille. But you wouldn’t know that to hear Ted or Michele, or any of the rest of the utterly crazy head spinners who grab every microphone within a ten yard radius to tell us that “all the American people know that Obamacare is a disaster, and 30 million people who have healthcare are losing it”, and the death panels are mere seconds from having their first hearing to DENY YOU your dialysis treatment.

You’d really think that there should be crowds picketing the White House no?

Did somebody forget that Obama beat the Romney “we hate Obamacare” machine by a record 51%, a higher margin than any posted since DD Eisenhower? Higher than even Ronnie “the now God” Reagan? Did somebody forget that the Democrats WON seats in the Senate and increased their number while Republicans LOST seats in the 2012 election? Did somebody forget that with having a near strangle hold on almost all of their gerrymandered seats in the House, they managed to lose a net 8 seats to Democrats and lost the popular vote by a 1.4 MILLION vote margin?

Does that suggest that people on average are pretty okay with the Affordable Healthcare Act?

Does the fact that out of the numbers who are “against” Obamacare, fully 30% are against it because it doesn’t go far enough, “i.e., single-payer system). And that those “against” it go down when you use the words Affordable healthcare Act instead of Obamacare?

Does the fact that by a strong majority people don’t think it’s appropriate to defund an existing law or threaten a government shutdown to do what you can’t do at the ballot box, matter?

Funny, when the GOP talking pointers tell me how much “all Americans” know Obamacare is a disaster, they never mention these points.

Funny, they also (with straight faces to a fault) tell me that the President and Harry Reid are unwilling to negotiate. I mean let’s get past the chutzpah of these folks who refuse on principle to compromise on ANYTHING, because it’s a dirty word. First get past that. Then riddle me this brain of a protozoan:

The AHA was passed by both houses of Congress by MAJORITIES, duly signed into law by the PRESIDENT, and found CONSTITUTIONAL by a Court that nobody considers liberal under the most strained definition.

The GOP cannot manage to either win the Presidency, nor the Senate, nor convince Democrats (some of which surely must care about the well-being of the American public before the well-being of their party) to pass in both houses a repeal nor convince the President that he should go along with them.

Failing that, they have said, okay, a minority of us within 1/2 of 1/3 of the government, are willing to burn the place down if we don’t get our way, having figured out no other means to get our way–LIKE VOTES BY THE PUBLIC ELECTING THEM TO CONTROL THE GOVERNMENT.  It’s akin to a robber putting a gun to your head and saying, “your money or your life, and if you refuse to give me your money, well don’t blame me that you are dead.”

They think I’m so stupid that I will blame the hostage rather than the hostage taker.

I am not going to blame the hostage.

Nobody is going to blame the hostage.

Except fellow travelers of the hostage takers. And you had then at hello.

The question left is: JOHN BOEHNER DO YOU HAVE PAIR? EVEN A STRAP ON SET WILL DO AT THIS POINT. You can give ‘em back if it’s too heavy a carry after this  is over. ONCE AND FOR DAMN ALL.

 

Related articles

• Congress shenanigans as shutdown looms (bbc.co.uk)
• Rand Paul Gets Schooled By Bob Schieffer On Defunding Obamacare (crooksandliars.com)
• ACA’s debut has hallmarks of Medicare’s start (miamiherald.com)
• The right’s real Obamacare nightmare (salon.com)

Items to Make You Queen of the Watercooler Next Week

See that’s me. I mean, imagine a woman instead of a man, and that’s me. I’m spend hours reading just so that you don’t have to. I mean you can if you want to of course. God forbid that fine education goes to waste, but I have burned up the Intertubes in an effort to find all the news that you missed.

And I read it all. And some of it was crap upon further inspection, and so I ditched it. And the rest, well you gotta know this stuff. Especially if you want all your friends and aunt Tilde to think you are just a real smart ass. (meant in the kindest way of course)

So, let’s get to it, in no particular order.

Paul Krugman has a fine op-ed in the NYTimes detailing the crazy party, AKA, the GOP. What he says is very true. The GOP argument for deliberately toying with the very health of our economy goes something like this: I have put a gun to your head and demanded your money or your life. If you refuse to give me your money, it’s your fault that you’re dead. I gave you the option to live after all!

On the other hand, this may all go to prove that one can actually get admitted to Harvard and get through it with flying colors and still be utterly and profoundly stupid. Ted Cruz may be set to be one of the most spectacular blazing super nova that sputtered out in record time in the history of horses asses, err, super novae.

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If it is true that humans have an individualized predisposition to violence, is it equally true that humans in community have a predisposition to violence in the form of war? It seems many assume this to be true. But evolutionary biologist, David P. Barash argues that this may in fact not be true. The latter may be only a capacity rather than an adaptation. Want to learn more? If you don’t think it matters, think again. We base our defense systems on assumptions of what other groups are likely to do. If we assume all people are driven to war to achieve ends, we build a different defense system than if we do not. And we’ve sure got the tax bills to reflect that.

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I know that most of you are just thrilled every time you get a chance to read about quantum mechanics, I mean what self-respecting grease monkey or grocery check out lady  isn’t obsessed with the working of the universe at the extra-tiny scale? Ever heard of an aplituhedron? I bet not. It all means that all the complicated mathematical twists and turns are eliminated as well as the super computer to do the computations. Now little Bobby can explain the most complicated sub-particle interaction with nothing more than a pencil and paper again!

If you are going, uhh, okay so what? Well, you all know that physicists have been since the beginning of time, trying to join the big universe with the small universe (macro and micro forces?) and it has just never fit well, and well, the don’t call it the elegant universe for nothing. Everybody who knows this stuff figured the answer would eventually be simple. This might be it. I’m not a physicist as you might have guessed by now.

I mean this is simply delicious early fall reading. Get to it. 

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Now I know you will love this one. There is a new book out there that you probably will want to get. I can imagine about half a dozen of you will be on Amazon in moments. It’s called Holy Shit: A Brief History of Swearing, by Melissa Mohr. Colin Burrows review of the book is worth the reading. Now read it your grouthead gnat snapper!

Steven Pinker from Harvard has written a book that details how we are becoming less violent as societies over time. He also argues that the world would be better led by science than by the humanities. Some beg to differ. A great essay from The Berlin Review of Books, and Gloria Origgi, A Reply to Steven Picker’s Scientific Manifesto.

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Love words? Lots of words? Okay.

The American Scholar has a fun essay called Is There a Word for That? Words are being made up all the time, but you knew that. Want to know who created some words we now take for granted? Who is responsible for katydid? Or neologize ? Or Anglophobia? Blurb? Gerrymander? Bromide? Oh I bet I got your attention now.

Similarly, if you have ever remembered the quote but not the quoter, and the more you looked the harder it got? Who Really Sad That? You would be surprised at how often we get the attribution wrong. Amaze your friends by correcting their quotes!

“Whoever is not a socialist when he is 20 has no heart; whoever is not a conservative when he is 30 has no brain.” Usually attributed to Churchill. Actually? Nobody knows.

Enter the fine world of WAS–Wrongly Attributed Statements.

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I betcha thought that the human mind created the gear, that round thingie that has “teeth” and meshes with other objects similarly constructed? That together makes things turn and other things go up and down and maybe side to side? You would be wrong. Scientists have found a gear in nature for the very first time. And YOU are some of the first non-specialists to know that, so don’t you feel so very proud?

A cute little guy called a planthopper (he has a very important scientific name you need not memorize) has a couple of gears in his back legs that mesh together and then when he calls on them to, spin backward sending him off on a leap across the earth that looks pretty fun. I’m sure it made sense to him too in terms of escaping predators or getting up as high as he wanted to feed. It’s called evolution folks. There is a little embedded video so you can watch him go!

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Must a life be meaningful in order to be happy? Do we prefer meaningfulness over happiness if we can’t have both? They are not the same by the way. Happiness in part is getting what you want or need in life. Meaningfulness can have zero to do with this. Similarly happy people report that health is essential, yet health has nothing to do with meaningful lives. Happiness is apparent in the now, while meaningfulness tends to be a future assessment. This is a long article but one that raises lots of questions to think about. Well worth your time.

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Nautilus brings us the ever-beloved essay on dinosaurs. The discovery and explanation of our bird predecessors have had a varied history as scientists working from small numbers of bones, continually revised their thinking of these creatures over time. As is usual, it is the unsung tiny dinosaurs that have done the most to correct our understanding over time of what these cuties looked like and how they lived. For the kid in all of us, this article will satisfy. I still wish there had been Brontosaurus, they were so neat!

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With the advent of all the cute devices we have now from phones to tablets to readers to computers, all with calendars and reminders of one sort or another, there is less and less reason to have to memorize things. Nobody has to write down a phone number or address. The call is registered, switch it to contacts and it’s saved forever. Enter an address in your Google maps app, and you don’t need to record that address again. And maybe, just maybe that’s a good thing. Memorization may be a much over-rated thing. Curious? Read on.

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How many late night gab fests have lingered long into the night over the ever-present question– Why was Spinoza excommunicated anyway? I mean this guy was ostracized with a big O, like in members of the congregation being order to be no closer that four cubits to the man. That’s some serious excommunication! Worse, payment of a fine served to dissolve most bans. Spinoza’s was life long. Spinoza himself never spoke of the harem, most of his works and fame came long after it. What is as interesting as why is by whom: Jews who had escaped forced Catholicism in Spain and Portugal and once free in Amsterdam, practiced a form of Judaism that was anything but normative. All in all, quite fascinating.

Happy reading everyone, and to all a good day!